We accepted credit cards for an auction once oor twice. We set up our own merchant account. My advice: don't settle for the first credit card processing company you find. There are MANY fees associated with credit card processing. Some are obvious (ex: a 2% "discount" which is a fee you pay based on the transaction amount). Some are not so obvious (ex: a $5 charge per month if you don't process any transactions that month, or a $x fee for a monthly statement, or a different discount rate if the transaction amount is very small or very large, etc.). I think we identified 5-10 different types of fees when we did our research. There is loads of competition between cc processing companies, so make a spreadsheet and compare them with a fine toothed comb.
The other issue we had was trying to do real-time electronic approvals at the auction. Nightmare! You pay more in fees if you have to process the transactions off-line, but at least you don't have the technical bottleneck of a single slow telephone line.
If you're accepting cc's for scrip payment, you'd probably be posting the transactions off-line, so you shouldn't have a problem, but you will pay more than the standard discount rate the compnay will quote you. Make sure you ask what the fee is for off-line transaction posting (by that I mean where you write down the cc number and then enter the transaction into the computer/cc company later-- as opposed to the type of real-time connection that is used when you shop at a store).
Our cc processing contact was a local guy who also happened to be a parent in our school. I think you can probably find several options with an internet search. You don't necessarily need to know an individual face-to-face since their primary role is setting up your merchant account(s). After that, the cc companies interface with you directly. You could ask small businesses or home-based businesses in your community who they used if you want a local contact.
Does your PTO accept payments with a credit card for fundraising? Our PTO, newly incorporated and 501(c)3 approved by the IRS, is interested in setting up a credit card account. Our school district administration will not allow us to use their account for obvious reasons. We'd like to know what experience you've had - good, bad, or ugly in regard to setting up and accepting credit card payments. We've had the equipment (machine, imprinter, printer) donated to us, so this would not be an upfront cost. Which company did you use? Did you experience any "hidden" fees? We know that a percentage of our sale will disappear in fees to the bank, but we feel like the potential increase in sales will offset the fees and at least keep us at last year's gross sales for all of our fundraisers. Are we being naive? In particular, we feel like more people would take advantage of our Scrip program if we offered credit card payment options. If you can provide any insight, we'd appreciate it!
